Re: <nettime> Google Buzz and the Surveillance Economy

[jaromil <jaromil@dyne.org>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256


hi James,

On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 02:57:21PM +0000, James Wallbank wrote:

> Perhaps a  way to ensure  that consumers understand "the  deal" with
> online privacy would be to  institute a "Law of Symmetrical Privacy"
> - in broad terms, data  collectors would have to offer, or withhold,
> data equally to all markets  - individuals as well as government and
> business. So, if Facebook said  that they wouldn't share their email
> address with other users, they would be obliged equally NOT to share
> your email  address with businesses  or institutions. If  a business
> disclosed  that they might  sell your  details to  another business,
> then they  would be  required also to  offer your email  address for
> sale  to other individuals  (proportionately priced,  of course  - a
> single email address might just cost a few pennies).
> 
> How would you feel about that?

I'd personally feel  very bad and the reason is  best argumented by: a
recent lecture prof.  Eben Moglen  gave at ISOC-NYC, 1h long and worth
                                        http://www.isoc-ny.org/?p=1338

from which an interesting quote:

  "Licenses are not  the answers to social problems. I  speak as a guy
  who  cares a  lot about  softwre licenses.   But I  tell  you again,
  licenses  are the  constitutions of  software communities,  and they
  solve  problems inside the  communities.  They  are not  tools whose
  primary benefit is to be found in their external consequences."

makes  me come  in mind  a  paper by  prof. Elen  Nissenbaum that  was
presented in  the Ars Electronica  symposium GOODBYE PRIVACY  in 2007:
"Privacy   as  Contextual  Integrity"
       http://crypto.stanford.edu/portia/papers/RevnissenbaumDTP31.pdf

> This "leveling" or "equaling" of  the transaction would make it much
> easier for  consumers to correctly  perceive what privacy  they were
> yielding up when interacting with an online service.

I think  that is easy enough  now. Citizens and  creatives do perceive
the lack of privacy, they just  don't see yet all consequences to come
and not  even the ruling cast (ops,  is it more polite  to say "policy
makers"?) sees it.

OTOH  opening  such a  market  to  private  interests (partially  true
already  for Facebook  et  similia) will  definitely place  Mafia-like
"bisniss" into a better position to operate.

As of  economic models, I  suggest you flip  your line of  thought and
start thinkering over  an "economy of mistery" -  funny enough, a term
circulating  among  Neo-Platonists and  Gnostics,  later swapped  into
"mistery of economy" to serve theologists better....

ciao

- -- 
jaromil, dyne.org developer, http://jaromil.dyne.org

GPG: B2D9 9376 BFB2 60B7 601F  5B62 F6D3 FBD9 C2B6 8E39


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
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=
=gGGd
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org